Hardware Podcasts

225: From Enterprise Engineering to Owning a Small Manufacturing Business Featuring Amorphic Brewing Founder Ron Hockersmith and a BROADcast For Manufacturers, Live from Milwaukee, WI

Manufacturing Happy Hour · 25 Feb 2025 · 44m

What this episode covers

Ron Hockersmith, founder of Amorphic Brewing, explains how he applies lean manufacturing and engineering principles from his tenure at GE Healthcare and defense contracting to run his Milwaukee brewery. He details the scientific approach to recipe design, including predictive modeling of flavor compounds, and the implementation of Kaizen improvements like hard-plumbing CO2 systems to eliminate leaks. Hockersmith also discusses the strategic decision to prioritize margins over volume, avoiding expensive distribution expansion, and the importance of building a high-trust, empowered team culture. The episode features a crossover discussion with Chris Harrington of GenAlpha Technologies and Lori Highby of Keystone Click about leadership, scaling, and the impact of recent tariffs on Canadian aluminum for beer cans.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Amorphic Brewing, GE Healthcare, GenAlpha Technologies, Keystone Click
Also
A BROADcast for Manufacturers

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